


Bonsai Nightmare

by Flamefriends



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Backstory, Bonsai AU, Human/Monster War, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Implied sansby at the end, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-24
Updated: 2017-05-24
Packaged: 2018-11-04 10:41:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10989273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flamefriends/pseuds/Flamefriends
Summary: Anyone can be haunted by their past mistakes. For a bartender like Sans, it can get pretty heavy.





	Bonsai Nightmare

**Author's Note:**

> Bonsai! A Sansby au created by Withtheworms and Illegalsekrit on Tumblr. The basic concept is that Grillby and Sans swap places. Wormy mentioned something about a certain character, and that got the creative wheels turning until they spun out of control. A lot of this involves personal headcanons about tale Grillby that I just transferred onto Sans for this. I spent about two hours starting at 1 am just non-stop writing on my phone, then had an equally tired friend give it a once over. There's probably extra spaces everywhere because of that. I'd add more detail, but I'm running on 5 hours of sleep because my cat woke me up (very important to pay attention to your cat. Very.) So I'm just going to go back to sleep after this and dream about this flame man. Please enjoy!

“SANS! SANS!”The skeleton in question turned himself towards that small, gleeful voice just in time to get barreled into and knocked to the ground by his enthusiastic younger brother. Sans was now laying sprawled on the floor and pinned under Papyrus. The older brother let out a playful groan and went limp.   
“oh no,” Sans said in a teasing voice. “the great papyrus has taken another victim. what will become of poor sans?” He lifted an arm to his frontal to add emphasis to his play-demise. His grin grew wide when Papyrus started laughing.   
“COME ON, SILLY BONES! YOU PROMISED YOU'D SHOW ME THAT THING FATHER GAVE YOU!”  
“can't right now, bro. i'm still captured.” Papyrus shook his skull, then quickly got off of his brother and helped Sans to his feet. Once Sans was up, he summoned his magic and a large dragon-like skull popped into distance, hovering a few feet off the ground. Papyrus immediately lit up.   
“WOWIE! IT LOOKS SO COOL!” The younger skeleton approached the floating skull and rubbed the top of its muzzle.   
“yeah. not as cool as you though.” Sans smiled at his brother, only to dismiss the attack. He knew they were dangerous, so he didn't want to risk accidentally hurting Papyrus, even if it was just one hp.  
“SO WHAT DO THEY DO?” Without the blaster in front of him anymore, Papyrus turned to Sans.  
“well, they--”  
Before Sans could finish, the front door opened with a crash as a third skeletal monster came charging through with no grace. He ran inside and slammed the door shut equally as hard as he'd opened it, frantically turning the locks.  
“dad?”  
“FATHER? WHAT'S WRONG?” Papyrus started approaching his father, but was stopped by a wave of the hand and some blue soul magic.   
“Boys,” Gaster’s voice was tense, and he was visibly shaken from whatever was wrong. “We Need To Leave. The Humans Are Coming.”

 

~*~*~

 

Everything went by in a blur after that. Gaster took Sans and Papyrus and half led, half dragged them out the back door and away from the center of town. The sounds of screaming echoed from behind them, and though they were scared and confused, they kept running...  
They didn't make it very far.   
An army of humans was there to greet them and several other monsters who tried the same escape route. Gaster cursed under his breath when he saw them draw their swords. “Sans, Take Papyrus And Run. You Remember How To Use Shortcuts, Right?”  
Sans looked up at his father nearly shaking with fear. The humans were gaining, and going back meant certain death. “y-yeah, but--”  
Gaster didn't wait for him to finish. He summoned his own arsenal of magic attacks, bones and blasters alike. “Go, Sans! Protect Your Brother!” He charged forward with the determination of a father.   
“NO!” Papyrus started to go after him, but Sans quickly took hold of the younger skeleton. He flailed around in Sans’s arms to no avail. Sans took one last look at his father before stepping through a shortcut with a screaming Papyrus in his arms. 

 

~*~*~

 

Papyrus was in danger. Sans had only left their secret refuge to find some food for his brother, but on the way back from stealing some bread from the nearby human village, he'd heard screaming. A shortcut later, and Sans was face to face with a human who had found his brother. They were locked in battle with Papyrus desperately trying to hold them back south blue soul magic and bone attacks while the human was trying to fight through the increased gravity and get in close. Sans wasn't about to let that happen. He summoned a blaster to add to the fight, then stepped in front of Papyrus. “i got this pap. just stay behind me.” 

 

Round after round, attack after attack, the human was still coming strong, but Sans was tiring out. He knew he couldn't last much longer. He cast a few blasters and fired them. Yes! The human was so close to death. Just one more hit! Their next attack was pretty pathetic too. Instead of slashing their knife at Sans, they simply threw it at him. Sans easily dodged it, and grinned. “You're out of knives, pal.” He threw the human down onto a bone, skewering them straight through their body. “get dunked on.”  
The human coughed up blood, but looked up at Sans with a manic grin. “Burn in hell, monster scum,” they croaked out just as the life drained from their eyes. 

 

Sans sighed with relief, and was about to collapse when he hard a thump behind him. He turned, but the sight was something straight out of a nightmare. Papyrus had fallen to his knees, jaw gaping open in a silent scream, and his hands hovered around his sternum, right where the hilt of a knife had pierced the bone. He looked as mortified as Sans felt, tears of liquid magic spilling from his eye sockets.   
Sans was on him in an instant, cradling him in his arms and trying his best to heal what was already irreversible. “pap pap pap, it's ok. it’s ok, look. i-i’m gonna fix this. i can fix this. i can heal you. i-- i-- i--”  
“S-Sans...” Papyrus’s voice had never been so quiet, so fragile. “Could you… tell me a pun...? Please...?”   
Sans’s voice broke for a moment, tears filling his own eye sockets. His brother's phalanges were already starting to break away. “why did the skeleton love his brother?” He paused, trying desperately to keep his voice from being overtaken by sobs. “because... without him, he'd be bonely...”  
Papyrus smiled a weak smile. “I love you, Sans...”

 

His arms were empty. 

 

“...i love you too, pap.”

 

~*~*~

 

Sans lurched forward, effectively sitting up in his bed. He recognized his room, but the safety of it didn't register. His brother just died in his arms again. Papyrus was gone again. He was alone again.   
He was always alone...   
“Sans... Sans, it's ok... Look... Sans, look at me.”   
Sans jerked his head in the direction of that voice, words not making sense. Was that another human? Was he going to be killed too? Would he get to see his brother again?  
Warm. His cheekbones were suddenly very warm, almost pleasantly, and his vision was completely engulfed by fire, or rather the person in front of him who just so happened to be completely made of fire. “Sans, look at me... It's Grillby, ok...? It's Grillby.”  
Sans blinked a couple of times, the rest of the world finally catching up to him. It had been another nightmare. Grillby had spent the night on his couch. “...Grillby...?”  
The fire elemental nodded, his form hold on Sans’s skull relaxing a little. “I'm here, Sans...”  
That was all it took for Sans to break down. He reached his arms forward and pulled Grillby close enough to bury his face in that familiar-smelling hoodie of his. He bawled and clung to the fire elemental’s hoodie, far too overwhelmed to do anything else but cry and listen to the soft pulsing of Grillby's core. Warm arms wrapped around his small frame and pulled him close, to which he was thankful for. He needed this. He'd talk to Grillby admit his nightmare later. For now, he just needed to be held, and who better to comfort him than his best customer, closest friend, and secret crush?

 

~*~*~

 

Grillby had no idea what kind of nightmare Sans had had, but if it was enough to get the pun-loving bartender to cry so violently, it must have been bad. And what was that skull thing earlier? Grillby had been lucky enough that it hadn’t fired at him. He was surprised the wall hasn't taken any damage either, considering the size of the blast. He'd ask Sans about it later. Right now, Sans needed him. The elemental wasn't entirely sure what to do; it wasn't like he had much experience comforting others. Usually Sans was the one comforting him on his bad nights. It was all he could to to just hold Sans and rub small circles into his scapulae and murmur calming words. It broke his soul knowing Sans was hurting. Grillby just hoped he was doing things right for his crush.

**Author's Note:**

> Anyway, Wormy mentioned Papyrus was dead a few days ago, and my writer's block decided to fade just long enough to write this. They could have had Papyrus being the aspiring chef or kind waiter, but noooo. He had to be dead. Anyway, if you have any suggestions for adding detail or touching up places, feel free to tell me. Or just comment in general. I love reading comments.


End file.
